


Just a Casual Hook-Up

by TurtleTotem



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [5]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: Still Have Powers, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Charles You Will Be Drunk, M/M, Online Dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 06:54:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9589685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurtleTotem/pseuds/TurtleTotem
Summary: Charles just re-installed Grindr to celebrate getting his Ph.D. (On Tumblrhere.)





	

After one last agonizing semester of Being Responsible, Charles had a doctorate of genetics in one hand and his phone in the other, re-installing Grindr so as to throw all that responsibility out the window as quickly and gloriously as possible.

The plan, of course, before her plane got delayed, had been to go pub-crawling with Raven. Maybe it was lame that _that_ was his celebration, hanging out with his sister, but she wasn’t wrong when she said she was his only real friend. Well, he was going to go pub-crawling anyway, and with any luck, he was about to make a new friend to bring along.

***

Erik only had a Grindr account because he’d found it useful in tracking people of interest. A lot of the men with information on the habits and hideaways of one underworld crimelord Sebastian Shaw were ultra-conservative politicians with an emphasis on Family Values; in Erik’s experience there was absolutely no one more likely to have a Grindr profile.

Needless to say, any messages from non-targets were flatly ignored. Erik wasn’t in this to find a boyfriend or even a night’s companionship; he had more important goals.

So he didn’t know why he looked twice at the blue-eyed newly-minted PhD soliciting his company for a celebratory night on the town.

But he did look, and kept the phone floating in the air in front of him as he dressed so he could keep looking.

***

The pub crawl was everything Charles could have dreamed. More accurately, _Erik_ was everything he could have dreamed—just as gorgeous as his profile pic, if not more so, lean and tall and muscular, and he spent the evening letting Charles hang all over him, drinking sparingly himself but applauding when Charles finished a full yard of ale. He seemed mostly amused by Charles, though, not always flatteringly, and once Charles got onto the subject of genetics he figured all was lost.

“Your eyes, see, you’re a mutant—we both are, blue eyes are a mutation of—what color _are_ your eyes, though? I thought they were blue but they’re more like… frost on leaves, or… like a blueish greenish…” Some distant, sober part of Charles was horrified to hear how he went on, but he was helpless to stop himself. “Well, it’s quite a gr—no, Raven won’t let me say that anymore. Fine, it’s a very _hip_ mutation, okay, very much the cat’s pajamas, all the cool kids have them.”

“Do they?”

“Mm-hmm, they do! And mutation, my friend, is what brought us from single-celled orgasms to the dominant form of life on the planet.”

“Single-celled what now?” Erik was grinning, his eyebrows climbing to his hairline.

“Organisms. You know, animals, living things—”

“That’s not what you said.”

“Isn’t it?” Charles frowned, but this only seemed to amuse Erik more. The waves of surprised affection radiating from Erik were more intoxicating than the yard of ale, and dear goodness, the man had a beautiful smile. So _intense_. “You know what? I’m done drinking. Let’s go home. To my place.” As if from a great distance, he saw his hand glide up Erik’s chest and neck to run a thumb across his lips.

To his surprise, Erik permitted it, feeling an unexpected jolt of heat that made Charles shiver.

Erik pulled away from his hand only long enough to toss back the rest of his drink. “Lead the way.”

***

For once, Erik was not thinking about Sebastian Shaw, about his dead parents or the hell of his childhood in the private lab of a mobster. More unusually still, he was not thinking about metal or magnetic fields, the freakish, unbelievable extra sense that had caused all his troubles and yet remained his one comfort in them. He was only thinking about Charles.

Sweet and soft and strong and clever, that was Charles, in body and mind, giving and demanding in equal heedless astonishing measure, and once they were both naked on Charles’s bed it was impossible to think of anything else. Erik let himself be bowled over, kissed and pinned and gently, ruthlessly caressed, wanting nothing more than to keep this man’s undivided attention as long as possible, wanting to hold and touch and take for himself—

He didn’t even realize his consciousness had spread into the nearby metals until the bedframe looped itself around Charles’s wrist.

Charles froze, eyes wide, and Erik’s stomach went into utter horrified freefall. He shoved himself upright and waved an instinctive hand, sending the bedframe back into its place.

This was the part, he knew, where everything fell to pieces. Charles would scream, scramble away from him in terror, go for whatever weapon he could reach, doubtless attempt or at least threaten to call the police. Erik’s only choices would be to kill him, or simply leave town immediately and trust that no one would believe his mad story.

But Charles did none of those things. He reached out to run his fingers across the bedframe Erik had moved, his expression not frightened but marveling. “Erik, that’s amazing. And no,” he added absently, “leaving town will not be necessary.”

“What—how did you—”

Charles grinned, touching a finger to his temple. “You have your tricks.” _I have mine._

Erik gaped. Surely Charles couldn’t be doing—couldn’t be saying—

“There are more of us,” Charles said. “Many more, is my theory, but I’ve only met a handful, mostly children.”

“Handful of…?”

“People like us, with special abilities.” _I did tell you_ , he added in that everywhere-and-nowhere mental voice. _Mutation. Evolution has leaped forward, my friend._

“There are others,” Erik whispered, and felt distinctly as if his chest, or perhaps the world at large, had just burst wide open, spilling light and possibility in all directions.

“You’re not alone, Erik,” Charles said, and reeled him in for another kiss.


End file.
